Video gaming is more popular than ever, especially for teenagers. There is an estimated eight games were sold every second in 2004, according to industry experts. But with that increased interest in flashy graphics and button-mashing comes increased health concerns since these video games usually involve intense gripping, repetitive punching motions on small buttons and sharp wrist movements while guiding joysticks. As the conventional portable game apparatus 2 shown in FIG. 1, a cross key 21 is employed thereby as the input device so that a player can manipulate the input device while holding the portable game apparatus by hand, thereby enabling game character movement and command selection as being display on the display panel 22. As a player is play a video game on the game apparatus for a long period of time, the extended pressing of the cross key 21 by the thumb of the player appears to play a role in the inflammation and strain of tendons and muscles. There are even a few non-tech terms referring to the swollen muscles and tendons that come from too much game playing, such as “Nintendo Thumb” or “Nintendenitis”.
Moreover, repetitive overuse of handheld electronics can cause a player to develop “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome”, which is a fairly common condition that occurs when there is too much pressure on a nerve in the wrist. There is usually aching, numbness or tingling in the thumb, some of the fingers and sometimes part of the hand. Although the syndrome can be released temporarily by a swing of one's arm, continued stress on tendons in hands and arms can lead to long-term ailments. In addition, ligament injuries are also commonly injuries caused by long-term video game playing, especially the inflammation at the joint of palm and fingers. The repetitive button-pressing and releasing can cause swelling at the base of the thumb and other fingers and eventually cause pain as the joints are overloaded. It is noted that the displaying area of the display panel 22 is limited so as to make room for the cross key 21 to be disposed on the electric device 2.
There are already several prior-art input devices and method thereof provided by well-known video game companies for improving the abovementioned shortcomings. One of which is a video image based control system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,917. Since the control system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,917 utilizes an improved video-based gesture control technique, the operation of a device can be controlled in response to the movement of a user in the field of view of a video camera, which is comparatively easier to handle and operate comparing to those controlled by joystick and keyboard. However, the type of control offered by these prior-art systems is limited since it can only detect movements, but is not able to determine the intensity of a detected movement.
The input methods for portable game apparatuses, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,375,572, 6,641,482, and 6,908,386, utilize an biaxial acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration in response to movement or tilt of the portable game apparatus. However, the aforesaid acceleration sensor can only measure the movement and tilt with respect to four axes, i.e. the foresaid portable game apparatus use an XY-axes acceleration sensor 31 to detect accelerations and tilts in X-axis and Y-axis directions. Therefore, since the detection ability of the aforesaid input method is limited, the type of game suitable to be applied thereby is limited. For instance, the aforesaid input method can not detect accelerations and tilts in Z-axis that it can not be used to control a 3-D game. Moreover, as the portable game apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,482 is a device being comprised of a housing and a detachable cartridge whereas the acceleration sensor is fixed on the cartridge, the overall manufacturing cost of this portable game apparatus will be higher than other ordinary game apparatuses.
Therefore, It is in great need to have an electric device with motion detection ability, which is capable of detecting movement with respect to comparatively more degree of freedoms for enabling the electric device to be applicable to various types of video games, and is a device without the buttons used as inputting interface of conventional portable game devices so as to enlarging the viewing area of the display of the electric device.